Filthy Iranian Trickery

From the theocratic, religion of peace government of Iran comes this disgusting stunt.

The Iranian government has presented an Iranian-American journalist working for an American-funded radio station with a choice between her 95-year-old mother and prison.

Over the weekend, a revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced the journalist Parnaz Azima to a year in prison for spreading "anti-state propaganda." If Ms. Azima, who is both an American and Iranian citizen, does not serve her sentence, the state will seize the home of her 95-year-old mother.

"This is a filthy trick they have done," Ms. Azima said in an interview by telephone from Prague, where she works for the Persian-language Radio Farda. "This is what they do with most people like me." She explained that the sentence meted out in absentia on March 1 was really a gambit to get her to quit her job with Radio Farda. She said similar tactics have been used against other intellectuals and journalists in Iran.

To be fair, using persecution of family members to leverage compliance from a targeted individual is employed regularly by authoritarian regimes. As such, it's not surprising. However, that doesn't make the tactic any less despicable.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.